Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction / Gilbert Rozman, Sue Mi Terry, and Eun A Jo -- Part 1. South Korea in the Hot Seat, 2013-2015. A Trustpolitik Approach to Denuclearization and Unification -- Managing Four Great Powers -- Remaking of Conservative Narratives -- Part 2. South Korea's High Stakes Diplomacy, 2016-2019. Great Hopes, Shattered Dreams -- Gambling on Great Power Relations -- Return of Progressive Narratives -- Part 3. South Korea Sobers Up, 2020-2022. Shift to the New Missile Age: 2020-2022 -- Edging toward Bipolarity: South Korea's Regional Reorientation, 2020-2022 -- Battling Partisan Narratives.

"Rozman, Terry and Jo analyse the geopolitical shifts in South Korea's policies towards its neighbours and allies over the course of the Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in administrations into the early years of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. 2013 to 2023 was a tumultuous decade in South Korean politics and especially in its foreign policy. Through two changes of its own presidency, as well as the rise and fall of the Trump administration in the United States, South Korea's politicians and diplomats have pursued different attempts at bridge-building with North Korea, before arriving at a more cautious and hostile position. The authors track the different attempts by Park and Moon to pursue increasingly optimistic attempts at reconciliation, and how they were thwarted by excessive idealism, domestic divisions and broader great power rivalries - notably including Russia, China and Japan. An essential guide to understanding the trajectory of South Korean foreign policy, for students of Korean politics as well as scholars and policy practitioners"--